THE GREEN REVOLUTION
P.Fitzgerald-Moore and B.J. Parai Foreword
This chapter started life as lecture notes and graphical displays prepared by Douglas H. Norrie (with data up to 1975) for his class "Technology in Contemporary Society." In 1984 Fitzgerald-Moore amplified the notes and started an annual revision of the data. In 1996, the notes and graphs were turned over to Brian Parai to form the basis of a term paper under Fitzgerald-Moore's supervision. Parai's paper has been extensively quarried during the revision of this chapter in the series "Lectures on Technology". We wish to thank the following who provided additional input : Parampreet Singh Sekhon; Ravi Bhalla ; and Zaheer Baber. Research is still in progress; many reference …show more content…
However, this is not the case with genetically uniform HYVs. Likewise, traditional farming practices include crop rotation which prevents infestations from getting firmly established. This built in protection of diverse crops is not found in HYV farming
Additional Inputs Farmers with extra profits often invest in new farming machinery, which intensifies the Green Revolution’s commercial approach to agriculture. This includes the use of tractors, mechanical threshers and electric pumps. Tractors in Punjab, for example, increased from 1,392 in 1960 to over 260,000 some thirty years later.21 With the introduction of such equipment, new needs are created - for fuels, electricity, and maintenance. The components of the HYV ‘package’ are novel to traditional farmers and most of them have insufficient cash to purchase them. Thus, support systems which provide monetary loans are created, providing farmers with the means to purchase the new seeds, fertilizers, water credits for canal use and power for pumps used in tube wells. Marketing systems are also created to allow former subsistence farmers to sell their crops, often in order to service their loans and to provide them with an outlet through which they can purchase fertilizers or equipment. Thus there is a transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture Ecological Impacts Amongst the ecological insults inflicted by the green revolution, the following have been identified: deteriorating soil …show more content…
However, these biocides are a health hazard to the farmers who work with them, and also to the general population as a result of residues in food crops and contamination of drinking water. Many of the biocides exported to third world countries are considered too toxic for use in their countries of origin. Restricted or prohibited by industrial countries, DDT and benzene hexachloride (BHC) account for about three-quarters of the total pesticide use in India.31 In many less developed countries, without enforced regulation or proper understanding of the dangers, workers engaged in spraying seldom use even elementary protective devices. In a report entitled “Tropical Farmers at Risk from Pesticides,” the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) showed that 55% of farmers in the Philippines who worked with pesticides suffered abnormalities in eyes, 54% in cardiovascular systems and 41% in lungs.32 Of the estimated 400,000 to 2 million pesticide poisonings that occur in the world each year, resulting in between 10,000 and 40,000 deaths, most are among farmers in developing countries.33 In Bhopal, India, tens of thousands of people were poisoned by an accident at a Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing plant. This leak of toxic gas caused 2,000 deaths. This catastrophe is more dreadful to the public mind than the much larger chronic effects. (See chapter on Accidents] These toxins also